The relationship between the federal Parliament and the community and
regional councils

Governing a federal State together

In 1830, Belgium was, beside a parliamentary monarchy with a
written
Constitution, also a unitarian State. The constitutional
revisions of 1970, 1980, 1988 and 1993 spurred the development of our country
into a federal State. Each community and each region has its own directly
elected council and its government : they make their own laws (decrees) on a
number of specific matters and also ensure their implementation.

The communities' responsibilities include, among other
things, education, cultural issues (including radio and television) and
personal issues (such as individual health care).

The regions' responsibilities include, among other things,
those issues tied to a particular geographical area such as the economy, public
works and transportation, the environment and agriculture.

For the moment, the central State retains responsibilities not
explicitly alloted to the communities ant the regions. They can, however, be
transferred later on, when a new article in the Constitution has enlisted the
exclusive competences of the central government.

Their own elected representatives at each level

The community and regional councils are directly
elected.

Because the communities' and regions' territories overlap, most
members of the regional councils are seated in a community council and vice
versa.

50 out of 60 senators retained the "double or triple mandate".

They hold two or three office positions : senator and member of a
community/regional council.

It involves 29 senators assigned by the Flemish Parliament, 20
senators assigned by the French community Parliament, the Walloon Parliament
and the French-speaking group of the Brussels Parliament and 1 senator by the
German Community Council.

These senators represent the communities and regions in the
Senate. This enables the Senate to play the role of meeting chamber between the
different federate entities and the federal Government.

No hierarchy of laws

Because of their direct election, the community and regional
councils dispose of their own democratic legitimacy.

The federate entities, however, do not have their own
constitution.

Their statute is contained in the federal Constitution and in laws
which usually have to be adopted by a special majority vote.(*)

This means that it is the federal Parliament which decides on the
possible alteration of the community and regional structures.

This remarkable difference with other federal states can be
historically explained. In Belgium, the federate entities evolved out of the
central State, whilst most other federal states developed from previously
independent states.

The decrees of the communities and regions have equal legal
validity to federal laws, while in most other federal states a clear hierarchy
is agreed upon.

In Belgium, the federal parliament can never recall a decree of a
community or region.

A decree or a federal law can be partially or entirely annulled by
the Constitutional Court (**), when the community, region or
federal State exceeds its authority.

The federal Parliament and the community and regional councils
are mutually autonomous.

Safeguards

In order to prevent this broad autonomy degenerating into
conflicts, a number of safeguards have been organized.

the Senate serves as a meeting chamber between the federal
authorities and the federate entities which are represented there by the
community senators

the Senate offers advice in the event of a conflict of
interests between the federal institutions

cooperation agreements (= policy agreements) are possible
between the federal Government, the communities and the regions

the Constitutional Court (**) oversees the
compliance with the division of responsibilities between the federal
institutions and is able to annul laws and decrees in the event of an
institution exceeding its authority.

* Laws with special majority vote = for the
amendment of basic legislation concerning the organization of the State, it is
necessary to have a majority in each language group as well as two thirds of
the votes in favor.

** The Constitutional Court = court of justice
which, among other things, determines whether or not the federal Government, a
region or a community is making decisions beyond its authority.